A handful of students on campus hosted a last minute vigil for conservative political influencer Charlie Kirk in White Plaza on Wednesday evening following the postponement of “Faith & Freedom Night.”
“Faith & Freedom Night,” originally scheduled for the same evening, was meant to include remarks from Kirk’s pastor, Rob McCoy. According to Elisha Bareh ’28, America Club member and president of the Turning Point USA chapter trying to established on campus, McCoy’s presence would require security that the club couldn’t afford.
Additionally, security threats to the event brought up on anonymous social media app Fizz and made in person dissuaded the organizers, in part due to the fees that security would impose. If security were called, Bareh said, the club would be charged several thousand dollars in fees.
“The university works diligently to support campus events that student organizations would like to hold, across many topics and interests. The group organizing this event was informed that funding was available to support the costs of their event, but the group did not apply for that funding. Also, to our knowledge the university did not inform the group of threats to the event, as we were not aware of any such threats,” University spokesperson Angie Davis wrote in an email to the Daily.
The spontaneous set up in White Plaza included candles, two posters of Kirk and multiple American flags. Bareh, along with William McTeigue, Connor Chin ’29 and Amari Luu ’28, decided to host the smaller vigil around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
McTeigue, a researcher at Stanford Medical School and member of the America Club, said that despite the impromptu nature of the vigil, the event drew approximately 50 passersby.
“I’d say about a third of people I’ve met are freshmen who aren’t involved in any clubs yet, but wanted to be involved with something like this that’s promoting good American and Christian values,” McTeigue said.
Bareh said he is eager to engage in bipartisan dialogue.
“I’ve seen a bunch of people on all sides of the political spectrum saying that they just want to have a free exchange of ideas, and I appreciate that,” said Bareh. “And I can’t wait to exchange ideas between the left, the right and the middle.”
Stanford Democrats president Sravan Kodali ’27 also emphasized the importance of fostering productive political discussion on campus, condemning Kirk’s murder as an act of political violence.
“I categorically condemn the attack against Charlie Kirk. We can debate passionately, but we cannot resolve disagreements with violence,” Kodali said. “We must defend free expression and peaceful protest.”
The club will postpone “Faith & Freedom Night” until security concerns are resolved and McCoy or another speaker is available to address the event’s attendees. While Bareh doesn’t have a date set yet, the club hopes to reschedule the event for this quarter.
Chin said that attending the vigil allowed him to engage in conversation with conservative members of this year’s freshman class.
“As a frosh, it’s really nice to see how many conservative people in my class are around,” Chin said. “My personal hope is that we’ll have a lot more discussions on campus, and a peaceful exchange of dialogue.”
Greta Reich contributed reporting.
This article has been updated to reflect the accurate affiliation of the Stanford America Club in setting up the event.
This article has been updated to include a comment from University spokesperson Angie Davis.